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November 03, 2002 at 07:00 PM
B y Trevor Thomas
Chicago
Bank customers dont want insurance products rammed down their throats, said Karen M. Kruse, senior vice president and manager of wealth management for First Tennessee National Corporation, Memphis, during the Financial Institutions Insurance Associations fall conference here.
What they do want from their banks financial advisors is someone they can trust, she said.
The advisor trying to sell insurance to a bank customer needs to overcome the clients doubt. For starters, that means being able to offer objective advice on a broad range of financial products, not just whole life insurance, said Kruse.
“Some insurance agents mistakenly believe that cash value life is the best solution for every financial need,” she added. “If youre a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Another speaker, Robert L. Nellson, principal and managing director of DeHayes Consulting Group, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., said bank advisors can build trust by keeping their ears open.
“You wont be credible until you gather a threshold amount of information on the customer,” Nellson said.
With more thorough information gathering, bank reps will find that customers are not only more likely to buy, but also to buy in higher volume and with greater frequency. And they will be prone to keep what they buy longer, said Nellson.
Many banks adopting the information-gathering model experience a three- to fourfold increase in profits, according to Nellson.
